SOLT Sister authors eucharistic calendar

By LORI BERGLUND
Special to Lumen Media
 
            Sister Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT, knows why she writes. Some folks write for a paycheck. Some people write to inform, to engage, and even to prompt action. The legendary Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor famously said, “I write to discover what I know.”
 
            All valid reasons, and perhaps there are some of those reasons within every writer. But Sister Anne Marie also has a much deeper motivation for writing.
 
            “My whole motivation is to somehow help people find their way closer to the Lord,” she said. “So, I always ask him to bless my words when they go out. I try to remember to do that so that they land where he wants them. That people would come to know him more deeply, that’s the whole purpose of writing for me.”
 
            Regular readers of LumeNotes/The Lumen are familiar with Sister Anne Marie for her monthly column, Grace Notes. With her heart-felt and encouraging style, she teaches that joy can be found in suffering, even as Pope Francis has recently said in his continued convalescence. Here within the Jubilee Year of Hope, she has also addressed becoming “pilgrims of hope” on our journey to grow closer with the Lord.
 
            Her love of writing as part of her vocation as a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), has also prompted the publication of several books, and the second in a series of Eucharistic Calendars. Her most recently published volume is titled: “A Eucharistic Calendar: Daily Reflections on the Mystery of the Blessed Sacrament, Volume II, The Seasons of Septuagesima, Lent, Passiontide and Easter.”
 
            The daily calendar format offers a brief lesson for each day of the liturgical season, along with an inspirational image. Her first volume in the Eucharistic Calendar series focused on the Advent and Christmas season. This second volume is well-timed to take readers through Pentecost, which marks the end of the Easter season. She expects to publish a third volume dealing with Ordinary Time. The whole idea of a calendar seems to have been inspired through listening to the Lord in prayer.
             “I had the idea in prayer one day that it would be lovely to just have a thought a day, either from a saint or from the teaching of the church, or one of the popes, with just an image with it,” Sister Anne Marie explained.
 
            In today’s busy world, many people don’t have time for a lengthy reading each day, but the calendar format gives inspiration in bite-sized nuggets that people can think about throughout the day, exploring the thought further as they work, walk or pray.
 
            Sister Anne Marie was inspired to focus on the Eucharist for her calendar through the lead-up in preparation for the first National Eucharistic Congress in 2024. As the church renews its focus on teaching the real presence of the Eucharist, the calendar seeks to reinforce that teaching and help people to understand further the gift of our Lord in this most Blessed Sacrament.
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            The calendars are but one of several publications she has authored. Gathering of the Light, Treasures Out of the Darkness was published in 2020, followed by Gathering of the Light, Confronting the Darkness in 2022. Each book is a collection of articles and writings that are more in-depth than the calendar reflections but can be consumed in a short time span and then used as food for thought in daily life.
 
            Sister Anne Marie has also offered a children’s book. Her calendars and books are available on Amazon. (Use the full name of Sister Anne Marie along with the book title for best search results.) The books and calendars are also available at Domus Trinitatis, the spiritual renewal and retreat center operated by the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity near Willey in Carroll County.
 
            Domus Trinitatis was built about 11 years ago and has been Sister Anne Marie’s home for the last nine years. She shares the center with two fellow sisters. It is open for groups and individual retreats.
 
            A native of Wisconsin, Sister Anne Marie said she had a very Catholic upbringing, but as with many in young adulthood, her passion for the faith took a backseat for a while.
 
            “I think I had a vocation as a young child, and I kind of lost it,” she said. “There was a point when I rediscovered it. I didn’t think about being a sister, I just thought about being a lay apostle and going to the missions in Africa or someplace where I could help out with children, since that was my background.”
 
            She earned her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and worked for a few years out of college in the late 1970s and early 1980s before that vocation began to reawaken within her.
 
            “I taught for about five years, and then I went through a real ‘re-conversion,’” Sister Anne Marie explained.
 
            Because of her desire to work as a lay person, rather than as a religious, she looked for an order that included members of the laity.
 
            “Our community is not just sisters,” she explained. “We have priests and laity as well. It’s a bit different, and that was real appealing to me.”
 
            She’s now been a Sister for more than 30 years and even served as general superior for SOLT in the past. Her work took to her many parts of the globe. The society chose rural Carroll County for a retreat center because of its quiet solitude and abundant nature.
            “We wanted to offer a place of renewal and rest for people in the missions so that they could come to a place and have a rest,” Sister Anne Marie said. “When you are in the missions you need to have a break and to go to a place that’s like home to you.”
 
            Fortunately for area residents, community leaders also discovered that people in northwest Iowa also enjoy the Domus Trinitatis retreat house for rest and quiet reflection.
 
            “Being around here we discovered that the laity also need that and we opened up to having people come and make retreats here,” she said.
 
            Groups can even contact the center about creating custom retreats with a theme of their choosing. She has done healing retreats as well as cancer and caregiver retreats.
 
            For more information about this unique retreat house, visit the website at homeofthetrinity.com or call (712) 292-3011.
 
Lori Berglund is a freelance writer based in Dayton. She is a member of Holy Trinity Parish of Webster County.